Setsuko Hara: Japan’s Eternal Virgin

On this day 10 years ago, Setsuko Hara, widely considered the greatest Japanese actress of the country’s Golden Age of Cinema, passed away at the age of 95. Known as the “Greto Garbo of Japan” and the “Eternal Virgin,” she was most closely associated with the films of Yasujiro Ozu, though she also starred in movies by acclaimed directors like Akira Kurosawa, Keisuke Kinoshita and Mikio Naruse. Despite his sudden retirement at the age of 42, Hara has left an indelible mark in the film industry.

Setsuko Hara, 15, in “Tamashii O Nagero” (1935)

Before the element

Hara was born on June 17, 1920 in Masae Aida, Yokohama, and is eager to become a young man’s teacher. But due to financial difficulties for her family – brought about by the Great Depression, she left school as a teenager to help contribute to her family income. Her sister married emerging director Hisatora Kumagai, who encouraged her to take part in the show. Join Nikkatsu Corporation, Hara made her screen debut in a 1935 film tamerau nakare wakodo yo ((Don’t hesitate to young people). She was only 15 years old at that time.

Two years later, her breakthrough role was in a German-Japanese joint production by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami The daughter of the warrior ((The daughter of the warrior, It is called in Japanese Atarashiki TsuchiNew Earth). She was impressed by a traditional Japanese woman who tried to commit suicide, after being rejected by a man she was supposed to marry, and tried to commit suicide. The film’s promotional journey takes her to various countries in Europe and the United States It is said that Shown by very popular movie and music star Marlene Dietrich.

Back in Japan, the actress appeared in several promotional films during World War II. according to Yuka KannoHara, an associate professor at Doshisha University’s Global Studies Graduate School, introduced the image of “a woman who encounters suffering at home” and after the conflict, “she often plays a bright, confident and independent woman.” In the 1946 melodrama of Kurosawa Waga Seishun ni Kuinashi ((Don’t regret our youth)For example, she starred in Yukie, a naive, sheltered, gentleman-bourgeois daughter who went through a profound transformation into a socially conscious adult to help improve the lives of rural peasants.

Setsuko Hara in Tokyo Story (1953)

Noriko trilogy

Three years later No regrets for our youth, Hara collaborates with Ozu for the first time, starring Banshun ((End of spring)a film about the widow’s father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu), who is forced to marry his only daughter. However, Hara’s character, Noriko, is reluctant to ride until sunset with a potential suitor because she has a close connection with her father and doesn’t want to leave him behind. The social pressure of marriage makes Noriko feel ambivalent, and Hara wondersly captures her internal struggle in a low-key way.

In her second film, The Wizard of Oz They’re inside ((Early summer) In 1951, Hara re-starred in Noriko. Although there are similarities between the two characters – both are single women in their 20s, facing the pressure of knotting family members – Early summer More optimistic and single-minded than self-sacrificing Noriko End of spring. She agreed to marry her childhood friend Yabe (Hiroshi Nihon’yanagi), though she knew it would disappoint her family, her family saw Manabe, Manabe, wealthy businessmen and husbands we never met, husbands we never met.

Hara was praised for her performance again, and Ozu said he wished he had “four or five like her.” However, two years later, the most famous Norrico character of Yokohama native is Tokyo Monogatari ((Tokyo’s story). After winning the first Sutherland Trophy of the British Film Academy in 1958, Ozu was initially regarded as an international audience as the “too Japanese” and gradually attracted global attention. Film director’s poll go through Vision and sound Fifty years later the magazine was selected as the greatest film of all time, and Noriko was a generous war widow who suppressed her emotions and was widely regarded as the most memorable character in the film.

Reject Kurosawa

Hara reportedly played the role of his wife in Kurosawa’s 1950 Classics between the “Norioko Trilogy” Rashomonbut rejected her brother-in-law Kumagai, which was not suitable for her. The character is played by Machiko Kyo, who establishes the main character of Japanese cinemas on the back of the film. It won the Golden Lion at the 12th Venice Film Festival in 1951 Hakuchi ((idiot), based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel. But that movie is hardly like Rashomon.

Another legendary director Hara has worked with several films is Naruse. The two have collaborated on five movies, including Grid ((FOOD), helps restore genres Shomin-Geki Movies about lower-class Japanese families, Yama has no Oto ((The sound of the mountain), based on Yasunari Kawabata’s novel of the same name, and Sweet ((It suddenly rained), in which Hara’s character Fumiko stands on her domineering husband. writing British Film Academy (BFI) critic Matthew Thrift said it was “one of her best performances as Fumiko”, adding that it was a far cry from the fantastic Noriko she played for Ozu. ”

After a sudden rain, Hara cooperated with Ozu again Tokyo Posak ((Tokyo Twilight), this is one of Alter’s darkest post-war movies. In the 1960s, they collaborated on two other films: Akibiyori ((Late autumn) and Kohayagawake has no Aki (literally means “Autumn of the Kohayagawa Family”, but the title is Summer is over in English). The latter is Ozu’s penultimate film before his death in December 1963. Her final role was as Riku in Hiroshi Inagaki’s historical drama film Chushingura and Toshiro Mifune 1962.

setsuko hara in future life

Setsuko Hara: Stay away from the spotlight

Hara compares Swedish-American actress Greta Garbo, who is very private and unexpectedly retired from the film industry when she was young. After resigning, Hala completely withdrew from public life, refused to take photos, and almost all interview requests dropped. She lives alone by the beach of Samurai Kura. From Yomiuri Shimbun It was reported that a brief call was arranged with her in 1992. Ask her for the 1950s stars answer“It’s not just me that shines. Everyone was shining at that time.”

She is a timeless national treasure, and she is called the “Eternal Virgin” of Japan by fans due to her screen records, some of her single characters she plays and the fact that she never married in real life. The public is fascinated by her. In 2001, Satoshi Kon released Sennen Joyu ((Millennial actress), an animated drama film based on her life, and the life of actress Hideko Takamine. Fourteen years later, Japan’s “Eternal Virgin” died in a hospital in Kananachuan Prefecture. Her death was not announced until November 25, 2015, two months after her death.

Hara’s family asks for delays because she hopesNo fuss. “A reluctant superstar, avoiding the focus for more than 50 years, is Japan’s largest female celebrity for about thirty years. Shusaku Endo. After watching one of her movies, he Write“We will sigh or take a breath from the bottom of our hearts because we feel like this: is there a woman like this in this world?”

More of this series